The Visible Woman

Professional, academic, activists, and patients provide 13 views of gender and the role of visual and textual representation of the human body in general and of women in particular in contemporary health and science. Among their topics are fetal photography, mammography, mental retardation, chronic fatigue syndrome, venereal diseases, abortion, living on disability in the wake of the ADA, and the immune system and the global economics of food. Lightly illustrated in black and white. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Visible Women: Tales of Age, Gender and In/Visibility is a reflective, questioning, subjective, self-indulgent and moving narrative exploration of the experiences of women growing older and not disappearing. What lies behind stories of older women becoming invisible and disregarded? How true are they, where do they come from, and what do they mean? How might they be challenged, and what other stories can be told? The core of the book is the poetic representation of the thoughts and lives of a group of women between 50 and 70. Their narratives are drawn from the email correspondence between the author and her seven co-researchers. Starting with a search for the anecdotal and mythical ‘invisible woman’, the author’s own story is woven into, and becomes part of, the journey. The landscape – which is beautifully observed in clear, non-academic language – takes us through feminist and poststructuralist theory, existentialism, auto/biography, journalism, fictional writing, art, film, poetry and the internet. In ‘examining the bones’ of tales of invisibility, Christine Bell is motivated by indignation as much as curiosity.

Professional, academic, activists, and patients provide 13 views of gender and the role of visual and textual representation of the human body in general and of women in particular in contemporary health and science. Among their topics are fetal photography, mammography, mental retardation, chronic fatigue syndrome, venereal diseases, abortion, living on disability in the wake of the ADA, and the immune system and the global economics of food. Lightly illustrated in black and white. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

In The Visible Woman, Allison Funk writes of how women often disappear into the roles expected of them, becoming invisible to themselves. To fill in “the thin / chalk outline” of herself that she’s “drawn and erased” for as long as she can remember, Funk returns to the anatomical model of “The Visible Woman” she left unassembled as a child. With poems rather than the kit’s plastic organs and bones, she strives to “create a likeness / to embody herself.” In her efforts at self-representation, the poet is guided by the visual artist Louise Bourgeois— her real-life model of a woman who proved that art gives us a way of recognizing ourselves.

#1 International Bestseller Winner of the 2019 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award Winner of the 2019 Royal Society Science Book Prize A landmark, prize-winning, international bestselling examination of how a gender gap in data perpetuates bias and disadvantages women, now in paperback Data is fundamental to the modern world. From economic development to health care to education and public policy, we rely on numbers to allocate resources and make crucial decisions. But because so much data fails to take into account gender, because it treats men as the default and women as atypical, bias and discrimination are baked into our systems. And women pay tremendous costs for this insidious bias, in time, in money, and often with their lives. Celebrated feminist advocate Caroline Criado Perez investigates this shocking root cause of gender inequality in the award-winning, #1 international bestseller Invisible Women. Examining the home, the workplace, the public square, the doctor’s office, and more, Criado Perez unearths a dangerous pattern in data and its consequences on women’s lives. Product designers use a “one-size-fits-all” approach to everything from pianos to cell phones to voice recognition software, when in fact this approach is designed to fit men. Cities prioritize men’s needs when designing public transportation, roads, and even snow removal, neglecting to consider women’s safety or unique responsibilities and travel patterns. And in medical research, women have largely been excluded from studies and textbooks, leaving them chronically misunderstood, mistreated, and misdiagnosed. Built on hundreds of studies in the United States, in the United Kingdom, and around the world, and written with energy, wit, and sparkling intelligence, this is a groundbreaking, highly readable exposé that will change the way you look at the world.

Thematic emphases in this text include the contacts between European women and those outside European frontiers, sexuality and its importance for the construction of gender over the centuries, and the role of women in the great events and movements in European history and the impact of such events on them.